How to give each student different quiz questions in Canvas
Short answer: in a classic quiz, open the Questions tab, click New Question Group, and set how many questions Canvas picks. Or open Course++ and type: “Make a quiz on factoring with 30 questions in one group. Each student gets 10 at random.”
The problem
I don’t want everyone to get the same quiz.
A question group draws from a pool, but you have to write the whole pool first. Every extra question in the pool is one more to type, and the settings are easy to miss.
a pool of questions to writepick-count set by hand
The fix
Describe the pool. Course++ builds the group.
It writes the pool, makes the group, and sets the pick count. You read through the pool before students see it.
1 sentencepool and pick count set
Prompts you can copy
Open your Canvas course, open Course++ beside it, and paste one of these. Change the names and numbers to match your course.
Make a quiz on factoring quadratics with 30 questions in one question group. Each student gets 10 at random, worth 1 point each.
A single pool.Make a unit test with two question groups: 20 questions on vocabulary where students get 8, and 15 on the reading where students get 5.
To draw from more than one pool.Change the Unit 2 quiz so its questions are in one group, and each student gets 10 of them at random.
When you already have the questions.Look at the Unit 2 quiz and tell me how many questions are in each group and how many each student will get.
A quick check. It only reads; nothing changes.
How to pick random questions in Canvas by hand
- In Course Navigation, click Quizzes, then Add Quiz. If Canvas asks for a quiz engine, choose Classic Quizzes and click Submit.
- Open the Questions tab and click New Question Group.
- Name the group.
- Set how many questions Canvas picks at random, and how many points each question is worth. Click Create Group.
- Click the add icon in the group to write each question inside it.
- Click Save and check the points total. Click Publish when you are ready.
Good to know
- Write questions that are about equally hard. Every student gets a different mix, so a hard pool makes some quizzes harder than others. Points per question are the same across a group. Questions in a group come out in random order, so keep any that must stay in order outside the group.
- Course++ can’t build question banks or item banks. Canvas gives it no way to do that. It builds the group right inside a classic quiz. If you need a bank, build it in Canvas yourself.
- Different questions help, but they don’t stop sharing. Students can still compare notes. If your pool starts as a document, see putting a PDF test into Canvas.
Questions teachers ask
Can Canvas give each student different questions?
Yes. In a classic quiz, put questions in a question group and tell Canvas how many to pick. Each student gets a random set from that group.
How do I pick 10 random questions from 30 in Canvas?
Create a question group with 30 questions in it, and set it to pick 10. You set the points per question on the same screen.
Can Course++ build a question bank?
No. Canvas gives it no way to build question banks or New Quizzes item banks. It can build a question group inside a classic quiz, which does the same job for one quiz.
Will every student see the answers in a different order too?
Only if you tick Shuffle Answers in the quiz settings. Otherwise the answer choices stay in the order you wrote them.
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Canvas steps checked against Instructure’s own Canvas guides in October 2026. Canvas changes its screens from time to time, and schools turn features on and off, so a button may be named a little differently in yours.